BMO Financial Group has made a donation of $250,000 to Laurentian University’s Goodman School of Mines. The cheque presentation was made at BMO’s offices at First Canadian Place in Toronto during the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada International Convention and Trade Show.

“At BMO Financial Group we believe in personal growth and achievement through continuous learning and access to education. We’re impressed with the vision of the Goodman School of Mines at Laurentian University, and with its focus on training the next generation of mining professionals in Canada,” said Jason Neal, managing director & global co-head, global metals & mining, BMO Capital Markets.

“We are delighted to count BMO Financial Group among the significant private sector supporters of our Goodman School of Mines,” said Laurentian University president and vice-chancellor Dominic Giroux. “I believe that we share a sincere conviction that both graduate education and life-long learning for mid-career professionals will enrich and strengthen the mining industry in Canada and abroad.”

The BMO Financial Group investment will be used to enhance the skills of future professionals in mineral exploration and mining, drive the creation of executive programs at the undergraduate and graduate levels, formalize new provincial, national and international alliances with other post-secondary institutions, double enrolment by 2020 and improve the university experience for students in Earth Sciences and Engineering.

Several weeks later, Laurentian officially concluded its Next 50 fundraising campaign, having raised $62.5 million – $12.5 million in excess of the $50 million campaign goal.

Other major contributors were Vale, Xstrata, IAMGOLD, Ned Goodman and family, Stan Bharti and family, Quadra FNX and Power Corp. The Sudbury Families campaign also drew significant contributions from several luminaries of the city’s mining and supply and service sectors, including Gord Slade, a former senior Falconbridge executive, Don Rastall of Rastall Nut and Bold, and Milad Mansour of Mansour Mining.

Two more Northern Ontario champions of industry have been inducted into Sudbury’s mining supply hall of fame, recognizing their hard work and leadership.

Bob Lipic, president and CEO of Mining Technologies International (MTI) and Don Rastall, founder and president of Rastall Corp., received their awards at the Sudbury Area Mining Service & Supply Association’s (SAMSSA) annual breakfast meeting November 28, 2008.

This is the second year for the award, which recognizes leaders who have built companies and created jobs in Northern Ontario’s mining industry.

“We wanted to do something that would recognize people in our industry who have done a good job,” said SAMSSA’s executive director Dick DeStefano. “It is a fairly significant award because you’re in your own environment and industry, and you do get applauded by your own people. It has created a sense of community that we recognize hard work.”

Hopefuls must be leaders from a Northern Ontario company who have contributed at least 25 years in management, sales or ownership within a mining supply and service company.

The most recent winners are two individuals who have built their companies from the ground up.

Bob Lipic has been the backbone behind his company’s growth, allowing his staff of 300 plus to better service the mining industry with an extensive variety of mining equipment and products. MTI has two plants in Sudbury and one in North Bay.

Lipic has been a recipient of two Northern Ontario Business awards, the Community Builders Award of Excellence and the Sudbury and District Chamber of Commerce Business Excellence award. He also remains active at Northern College, MIRARCO and the Centre for the Commercialization of Mining Technologies and Services.

Don Rastall began Rastall Corp. in 1975 when his father-in-law sold Helpert’s Supply, a wholesaler and parts supply store, where Rastall had worked for 15 years.

Armed with his adjustable wrench and its secret metallurgy, he modestly started with $3,000 cash, an $8,000 bank loan and a 350-square foot space. Now he has 25,000 square feet of space, 32 employees and 94 distributors.

His three subsidiary companies: Nut and Bolt, Mine Supply and Tool Corp. supply the mining, forestry and construction industries all over the world. Rastall Corp.’s diversified product line, particularly the fasteners, has offset any harsh cyclical market impacts.

“In good times, they assemble new machines, and in bad times, they replace the bolts,” he said.

By offering fair and competitive prices, Rastall has won large international contracts. At 72 years of age, he continues to lead his company and offers some valuable words of advice: “Always pay yourself first, have a plan, think, and look ahead. Look at your employees last when cutting costs and take care of your customers … service, service, service.”

The nuts and bolts of this Sudbury-based mining supply business are .nuts and bolts, but miners across Canada and elsewhere in the world know it for its high-quality, specially designed tools.

Years ago, Rastall Nut and Bolt founder and CEO Don Rastall noticed that miners in Sudbury lugged around a 15-inch adjustable wrench on their belts.

Thinking it would be a lot a lot more convenient if they had a smaller, lighter wrench that opened just as wide, he designed and patented one and had it manufactured. Soon, miners across Canada were replacing their 15-inch adjustables with Rastall’s 12-inch miner’s wrench.

Some time later, Rastall also noticed that miners would often use their adjustable wrenches as hammers. In some cases, they even welded a nut on their wrenches for this purpose. The hammering inevitably caused problems with the mechanism that opens and closes the jaws, and that got him thinking. Before long, the Rastall hammer head miner’s wrench had caught on too.

The handles of both adjustable wrenches include a 7/8-inch hex and have a six-inch “bootleg” mark to help miners measure the prescribed distance from a failed hole when installing roof bolts.

“We’ve had at least four or five competitors over the years who have taken a run at the wrench and they’ve all failed,” said Rastall president Tom Primeau. “Quality is a top priority. You don’t put an inferior product in a miner’s hands. It has to be strong enough to withstand the abuse.”

The Rastall collection of miners’ tools also includes a roof bolt dollie, used for tightening roof bolts, a swivel wrench used for grooved, Victaulic couplings and a wide opening spud wrench with a pointed handle, which is used in the construction industry for lining up two steel beams.

Roof bolt dollies

Rastall turned his attention to the roof bolt dollie when he learned that dollies available in the marketplace weren’t up to the job.

“Miners were constantly going through them,” said Primeau. “It was a high-volume consumable, so we just made a better one.”

The swivel wrench, which rotates to accommodate two different size clamps, comes in three configurations and is private-branded by Rastall for Victaulic of Canada.

The design and development of miners’ tools “has a lot to do with Don talking and listening to people,” said Primeau. “Someone has a concern or an issue, and that gets his mind going.”

Rastall sells its miners’ tools directly within the Sudbury area and uses distributors across Canada and the U.S. The company’s tools also find their way to other mining jurisdictions through Canadian-based mining contractors such as Dynatec and the Redpath Group.

Rastall Nut and Bolt’s slogan, “We hold things together,” is right on the mark. The company boasts an inventory of 18,000 items worth more than $1 million and serves most of the major industrial companies in northeastern Ontario, including Inco, Falconbridge, Domtar and Algoma Steel. It also supplies Falconbridge’s operation in the Dominican Republic.

“Our customers demand a quick turnaround time,” said Primeau. “That’s why our inventory is so important to us. None of them have warehouses anymore, so when they need something, they need it now.”

Inco decided to do away with warehousing fasteners and other supplies nine or 10 years ago because “the cost of warehousing and requisitioning exceeded the cost of the fasteners,” said Primeau.

The new business model shifted responsibility for on-site inventory to the suppliers, requiring Rastall to maintain a two-month supply of fasteners at multiple sites, both on surface and underground. Rastall supplies items based on the fasteners commonly used at each site. Sales staff visit the sites periodically to replenish supplies.

Inco invites bids for a Sudbury-wide fastener supply contract every three years.

“We have to be competitive on the price of the fasteners, but the capability to offer service and maintain those inventories is a big part of it, so anyone submitting a tender has to know what’s involved,” said Primeau.

Sourcing fasteners and keeping track of their own inventory is an important part of the business. Rastall’s most important supplier is based in Quebec, but the company also sources product from the U.S., Europe, Taiwan and China.

Items not in inventory are custom-ordered and, if they can’t be sourced, Rastall arranges to have them manufactured.